Robert H “Bobby” Adams was born on
December 14, 1921 in Tuolumne, California. He was signed by
the Cincinnati Reds along with his brother
Dick and assigned to the Ogden Reds in the Class C Pioneer
League in 1939. He remained with Ogden in 1940 and played for the
Columbia Reds in the Class B South Atlantic League in 1941. In 1942
he played for the Syracuse Chiefs in the Class AA International
League.

At the end of the season he was slated to join
the Cincinnati Reds but went in the service on January 22, 1943 and
was stationed with his brother at the Santa Ana Army Air Base.
Together with
Joe DiMaggio, the Adams brothers created a formidable team at
Santa Ana in 1943. They had a 20 game
winning streak that extended from May 25 to July 4.

Adams
remained at Santa Ana until 1945 when he was sent to the South
Pacific. As part of a contingent of 94 ballplayers Adams arrived in
Hawaii in June 1945. Representing the 58th Wing, along
with teammates
Enos Slaughter, Joe Gordon, Birdie Tebbetts and Howie Pollet,
the ballplayers island-hopped towards Japan following American
forces. On Tinian, the Seabees bulldozed out a ballfield on top of a
coral reef and made bleacher seats out of bomb crates. Exhibition
games were also staged at Saipan, Guam and Iwo Jima with an
estimated 180,000 soldiers getting the chance to witness major
league baseball players in action.

Santa Ana Army
Air Base in 1943. Bobby Adams is front row, fourth left.
His brother Dick is back row, sixth left and Joe
DiMaggio is front row, second right.

Twenty-seven games were played on
the tour which concluded in October and the players returned to the
United States in early November.

In 1946 he reported to the
Cincinnati Reds and made his major league debut on opening day April
16. Adams played 94 games that season and batted .244. He stayed
with Cincinnati until the 1955 season. His best year was 1952 when
he batted he batted .283 in 154 games.

Adams later played for the White
Sox, Orioles and Cubs, ending his major league career in 1959. He
played 1281 games and had a career batting average of .269.

After playing out the end of the
1959 season with the Seattle Rainiers in the Pacific Coast League,
Adams served as secretary of the Association of Professional
Baseball Players until 1960.

Adams later served as a coach
with the Chicago Cubs for five years and became president of the
Tacoma Cubs of the Pacific Coast League in 1966. He remained in
Tacoma until 1971, when the team moved to Texas, but remained in
baseball until retiring in 1981. His son, Mike, was an outfielder
with the Twins, Cubs and Athletics during the 1970s.

Bobby
Adams passed away on February 13, 1997 in
Gig Harbor, Washington. He was 75 years old.